Next spring Miss Rumphius was not very well. Her back hurt her and she
stayed in bed most of the time. She could see flowers in her garden from her
bedroom window: blue, purple and pink. “Lupines,” said Miss Rumphius,
“I love lupines very much.” She wanted to plant more seeds that summer,
but she couldn’t.
Next spring, Miss Rumphius was better. One afternoon, she went up the hill.
“I don’t believe my eyes!” she cried. There were lupines on the other side of
the hill! “It was the wind,” she said. “The wind brought the seeds from my
garden here! And the birds helped!” She bought a lot of flower seeds. All that
summer, Miss Rumphius walked and threw lupine seeds along the roads.
Next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius did the third –
the most difficult thing of all!
Miss Rumphius is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there
are more and more lupines. Now people call her Lupine Lady. Sometimes
children stand outside her house and want to see the old, old lady. They
think she is the oldest woman in the world. She often tells them stories about
faraway places.